TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  8162
SUBJECT: SGR 0501+4516: Confirmation of the NIR counterpart
DATE:    08/08/29 22:06:04 GMT
FROM:    Antonio Deugarte at IAA-CSIC  <deugarte@iaa.es>

A. de Ugarte Postigo (ESO, Santiago), A. J. Castro-Tirado, J. Gorosabel
(IAA-CSIC, Granada), M. Morales-Calderón and N. Huélamo (LAEFF-INTA,
Madrid), on behalf of a larger collaboration, report:

We have observed the field of SGR 0501+4516 (Holland et al. GCNC 8112,
Barthelmy et al. GCNC 8113) using the 4.2m WHT (equipped with LIRIS) on
Aug. 29.245 UT. A short integration in the K-band does not show any source
at the position of the proposed NIR counterpart (Tanvir et al. GCNC 8126)
down to a 3-sigma limiting magnitude of K~19.5. This is consistent with
the flux decline observed by Rea et al. on Aug 25 (GCNC 8159) and would
correspond with the decline in high energy activity reported by Palmer
(GCN 8150, ATEL #1683). This implies that the source reported in the NIR
by Tanvir et al. and in the optical by Fatkhullin et al. (GCNC 8160) is
most likely the counterpart for SGR 0501+4516 at these wavelengths.

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